Do I even need to explicitly feed my yo-yos?

[asincero]

I have a 36g tank thats stocked with 10 mollies (plus a number of babies I didn't count), 6 platys, 1 guppy and a whole lot of pond snails. Today I bought a school of 3 yo-yo loaches to handle the "snail problem" I'm starting to have. Given the huge number of snails I have, do I even need to bother to make sure the loaches are getting their fair share of the flakes I typically feed to the other fish?

It's been about 4 hours now since I threw them in the tank. So far, I haven't witnessed them eating any of the snails yet. They didn't seem to be interested in the fish flakes I fed to the other fish either. They seem to be preoccupied with exploring their new home at the moment. Hopefully this will pass and they will get down to the business I bought them for and thats to get rid of the snails. They are indeed cool fish to watch though. Much more interesting then the mollies, the platys and that dumb guppy. I might set up a loach only tank and get the bigger clown loaches at some point.

[fishpoor]

yes you have to feed your yoyos. Shrimp pellets, bottom feeder pellets or just about any sinking food. If they seem uninterested in the snails, they may not see them as food. Try squashing a few against the glass & they'll get the idea.

[asincero]

Ok ... I went to PetsMart today and bought some shrimp pellets. I threw a few in the tank, and the one loach whos even out and about passed over them. :mad: The other two hide under the rocks. The mollies, though, went right after them. They didn't eat them all, but they took some nibbles.

Maybe I need to give the loaches more time to adjust. I hope so. I'd feel a lot of better if I can see them eating something. Anything. Doesn't have to be snails!

[IceH2O]

Give them a few days, they need time to adjust to the new enviroment. Before long they'll be as active as any other loach.

[geekrockgirl85]

we bought shrimp pellets when we bought our yoyo loaches, but everyone else in the tank seemed far more interested than them.

we rarely feed shrimp pellets anymore. we've had them for about four months now, and they learned fairly quickly to swim to the top and do this cute upsidedown backstroke to get flake food. :dance2:

therefore, i would consider the shrimp pellets optional (maybe a treat?) unless you have a bigger school or if they're the only fish in the tank. otherwise, they seem pretty happy scavenging and eating flakes with everyone else.

[ropefish dude]

Give them a few days, they need time to adjust to the new enviroment. Before long they'll be as active as any other loach.


i agree, loaches can be very shy fish, and even if there in a school, they still might need some time to ajust before they get into there normal behavior. my new loach wouldn't eat anything for three days, and i thought he might die of starvation! now he is always swimming around the tank, and eats more than anyone :shark: